Ever wonder why ancient statues have small penises

An article with a similar title was sent to me by a reader and friend of this blog and it made me laugh so I thought I’d share it with you for some light reading.

According to art historian Ellen Oredsson, the reason virtually every ancient statue you’ll ever see has a rather small penis is because of cultural perceptions and biases of the time. Apparently, big penises were associated with specific negative characteristics: foolishness, lust and ugliness. By contrast the ideal man was meant to be rational, intellectual and authoritative and a small penis allowed a man to remain coolly logical.

Who can say if this is true or not but the brief and colorful article (they use a bit more direct language) can be read in its entirety here.

I should mention that Dr. Andrew Lear, an expert on ancient sex(uality) quoted in the story, will be leading one of our 2016 Boston Pride Arts programs this year: a tour of LGBTQ-themed art in the Museum of Fine Arts. So if you want to get to know Dr. Lear and see him in his element, you won’t want to miss out on the tour!